The "Professional" difficulty level in the "Resident Evil 4 Remake" is rough. I could have handled the tougher enemies and the difficulty's almost complete lack of autosaves, but the brutally limited parry window has me packing my bags for the hardcore mode in record time. Meanwhile, the usual suspects have already made it through the Extra Hard campaign in literally record time.

The secret, it seems, is to run past enemies so fast that you don't even have to parry them. This 2:05:01 run by Distortion2 (open in new tab), who you may remember made his first mad dash to speedrun Elden Ring (open in new tab) last year, demonstrates this strategy beautifully.

But it was a relative unknown who set the sub-2-hour record: streamer spicee ran 1:58:47 (opens in new tab) earlier today. I was heartbroken to discover that my beloved Red9 pistol is not the best choice for speed runs because of its inconspicuous location. Likewise, the baggage of saving the life of a cute dog who helps me in my fight against El Gigante, and Spicy leaves the poor pooch suffering in a bear trap. It reminds me of the speedrunners in "Super Mario World" who often send Yoshi to hell (open in new tab) for a particularly long jump.

Aside from a handful of scattered glitches, these runs are almost classic and recognizable Resident Evil 4, just played very quickly and aggressively; Spicee's 1:58 is not too far off the current standard difficulty of 1:51 held by Frit (open in new tab) Both Spicee (open in new tab) and Distortion2 (open in new tab) regularly stream on Twitch. Streaming.